Video: HTC's Touch Diamond / Pro are multi-touch gods, just not how you'd think

by Thomas Ricker, posted Aug 20th 2008 at 5:16AM

While multi-touch input might be all the rage in handhelds and laptop trackpads at the moment, alas, it's not on the feature list for HTC's latest Touch Diamond and Touch Pro. However, the capability is indeed present and exploited on video by HTC's own debug application. Even more interesting is the way that the handsets' entire front, capacitive surface (not just the 2.8-inch, 640 x 480 pixel display) can be used for multi-finger input. So like Dell's Latitude XT Tablet which launched multi-touch ready, expect to see future, multi-touch capabilities come to HTC's latest... someday. Click through for the vid.

Filed under: Handsets, HTC

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, capacitive, HTC, multi-touch, touch diamond, touch pro, TouchDiamond, TouchPro, video

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Matt @ Aug 20th 2008 6:20AM

Now we can call them the MULTITouch Diamond and MULTITouch Pro... *crickets*

Neutral

GroovDude @ Oct 1st 2008 12:06AM

*tumble weed*

Neutral

illegible @ Aug 20th 2008 9:32AM

I'd be more impressed if the video showed some multi touch on the main portion of the screen rather than just the buttons.

Neutral

Juggernaut @ Aug 20th 2008 9:39AM

Is it just me, or does the interface seem really slow? Guess I'll need to play with one in person. Nice multi-touch though!

Neutral

mhhd @ Aug 20th 2008 2:32PM

Can anyone give an example of some of the applications of multi-touch functionality?

Neutral

bernardino @ Aug 20th 2008 5:16PM

Zoom in by bringing your fingers together, zoom out by moving them apart, rotating items by rotating the position of two fingers.

Neutral

olskool @ Aug 20th 2008 6:00PM

Rotate? Looking forward to the first Rotary dialer UI for this phone...

Neutral

Taylor @ Aug 20th 2008 6:17PM

Also fun stuff like two fingers swiped left or right to change tabs or go back or forward (while one finger still lets you scroll around). That's something i want to see implemented on the iPhone!
-Taylor

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mhhd @ Aug 20th 2008 8:05PM

Two-fingered gestures (not that kind) would be awesome. Thanks for your replies, mates.

Neutral

GroovDude @ Oct 1st 2008 12:07AM

Usually I try to keep a fine line between iphone and HTC, because they are both great, but I'm tired of people seeing the Touch as an 'iphone' clone, which I'm convinced it's not.

Anyhow, to get examples of what multi-touch can do for you for a handset, you should youtube iPhone pinching and also take a look at the Microsoft Surface. It's not a mobile device, but gives you some ideas what you can do with a multi-touch interface. There are also tons of youtube videos of other mutli-touch interfaces that are custom built or built for other devices instead of Apple and Microsoft.

Neutral

Langdon Alger @ Aug 20th 2008 10:10PM

Typical HTC ... don't take advantage of built-in capabilities so that you can make a buck selling the unrestricted version a year later (think hardware acceleration without the software drivers) ... vote with your dollars, people.

Don't kid yourself Tommy. If an HTC ever got the chance it would kill you and everyone you care for!

Neutral

deekoi @ Aug 21st 2008 11:00AM

I think this is a great step for HTC! This could be the beginning of something really great! Regardless of the need or the speed right now, it's all in the works.

It's a great step towards innovation and better future phones and gadgets!

Neutral

JL @ Aug 21st 2008 1:50PM

Maybe there will be Android variants of these (besides the G1) that will take advantage of the multi-touch capabilities?

Neutral

Dave @ Aug 21st 2008 8:23PM

okay today i broke and gave in, i order a uk version of the touch pro, couldn't wait any longer for htc to annouce htc gsm for att, after nemerouse querys to them about it, and recieved nada, i bought a uk version, im so happy for now >.> would suck to see gsm version for att show up in the next week...